Your Guide to February 2017's Third Friday in Phoenix

Enough with the flowers and candy, already. With Valentine’s Day behind us, it’s time to refocus all that love on local artists by showing up to see their work. You’ve 13 great options this week, including 11 shows happening on Third Friday, and another two that open the night before. Here’s a look at where you’ll find fresh art this week, including tips for shows to put at the top of your must-see list.

“Abstraction in the Singular: Part I” Grant Vetter curates a survey of painters from Arizona and the West Coast who’ve affected ways people think about abstract art in its many diverse manifestations. More than two dozen artists are part of this Bentley Gallery exhibition, including Bill Dambrova, Rachel Goodwin, Layne Farmer, and Travis Rice. Third Friday hours are from 6 to 9 p.m. Get details on the event Facebook page.

“Fodderland” See Travis Rice’s MFA thesis exhibition at Arizona State University's Step Gallery, which includes paintings, drawings, and sculpture infused with digitally derived terrains characterized by “bold, gaudy, artificial finishes that challenge the codes of taste” even as they “defy the austere foundation of their hard-edge aesthetic.” Third Friday hours are from 6 to 10 p.m. Find information on the event Facebook page.

“Retracing Audubon: Contemporary Views”Northlight Gallery presents black-and-white photographs by Krista Elick, an Arizona State University alumna who spent more than a decade retracing the steps of renowned artist and naturalist John James Audubon, taking photographs that reveal landscapes scarred by human activity. Explore the gallery’s community room to see maps and bank notes setting Audubon’s work in historical context, and works by Stephen Marc and Averian Chee exploring the convergence of Native American, African-American, and European-American histories. Third Friday hours are from 6 to 10 p.m. Find more information on the exhibition, and related programming, on the ASU Events website.

“Born Under Punches”The Hive presents works from Jeff Slim’s ongoing series of paintings featuring his “personal interpretations of Navajo peers flowing within the shifts of modern society,” which explores the intersection of traditional beliefs and modern concepts, incorporating references to both pop culture and ancestral stories. Third Friday hours are from 7 to 10 p.m. Learn more on The Hive Facebook page.

“Still”{9} The Gallery presents works by Johnny Kerr, a photographer who embraces solitude, and creates works reflecting his pursuit of quietude within a bustling, noisy world. Through the act of taking pictures, often using long exposure times that blend multiple moments into a single image, Kerr seeks “to be still, to listen, to see, and to process.” Third Friday hours are from 6 to 9 p.m. They’re followed by a 9 p.m. to midnight after party featuring works by Amanda Adkins. Find details on the event Facebook page.

“So lightly here…” See new works by Kim Sweet, whose paintings created with oil and wax on canvas or panel reflect a search for beauty amid struggle. Informed by the “notions of suffering and joy” within works by Robinson Jeffers and Naomi Shihab Nye, they’re meant to prompt reflection on the intersection of loss and change. Third Friday hours at Eye Lounge are from 6 to 10 p.m. Get details on the Eye Lounge website.

Read on for more Third Friday art shows.

See works by Patrick Dean Hubbell and Jonathan Howard at Modified Arts.

Courtesy of Modified Arts

“Haunted” and “That Which Makes Up Space”Modified Arts presents “Haunted” featuring works by Jonathan Howard along with “That Which Makes Up Space” featuring works by Patrick Dean Hubbell, an artist showing for the first time at Modified Arts. Howard uses painting, drawing, and found objects to explore “the nation’s recent dark turn.” Hubbell, a Diné artist based in Window Rock and represented by Peters Projects in Sante Fe, uses layers of line and color to explore the intersection of Native and contemporary identities. Third Friday hours are from 6 to 9 p.m. Find details on the Modified Arts website.

See work by Wayne Hulgin at one of three shipping container galleries in Roosevelt Row.

Wayne Hulgin

“Onloaded: Wayne Hulgin” Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art presents an exhibition of new works by San Diego artist and art professor Wayne Hulgin, who earned his MFA in painting and drawing from ASU in 1995. Hulgin works with wood, paint, paper, canvas, and graphite lines, often creating pieces that curator Ted Decker describes as “stripped of symbolism, narrative, and sociopolitical agendas.” Third Friday hours in the shipping container galleries in Roosevelt Row are from 6 to 10 p.m. Get more information on the Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art website.

See works by several artists including Barbara McGuire in the "Tiny Art" show.

Barbara McGuire

“Tiny Art” The Herberger Gallery at the Arizona Center presents small works by more than 60 Arizona artists, including Joan Baron, Brad Cooper, David Lash, Barbara McGuire, and Rachel Srinivasan. See works in multiple media including oil, watercolor, acrylic, ink, monotype, collage, pastel, encaustic, and photography. Third Friday hours are 6 to 8 p.m. Learn more on the Herberger Theater Center website.

See work by Tyson Krank and several other artists at The Allery.

Tyson Krank/Photo by Lynn Trimble

"Archives: Art on Objects"The Allery presents works by more than 20 artists, created on drawers repurposed as panels. Participating artists include several of the Valley's best-known muralists, including JB Snyder, Colton Brock, Lalo Cota, Sierra Joy, Tyson Krank, Tato Caraveo, and JJ Horner. Other featured artists include Mykil Zep, Volar, Chelsi Rossi, and Abe Zucca, to name a few. Third Friday hours, when music is by Heavy the Lightweight and Deejay Just Chris, are from 7 to 10 p.m. Find more information on JB Snyder's Instagram page.

“Nuances of Color”First Studio presents works by Li Hua Mahalink and Gloria Cuádraz, two artists who create very different styles of oil paintings. Explore abstract and figurative works during Third Friday hours, which are from 6 to 9 p.m. Get details on the First Studio Facebook page.

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Thursday, February 16, Shows

Matt Magee Shortcut Gallery, an exhibition space shared by Phoenix General and Framed Ewe, presents photographs by Matt Magee, a Phoenix artist born in France, and raised in Libya and London before moving to the United States, where he spent several years living in Texas and New York before making Arizona his home. The exhibition features photographs taken between 1981 and 2016. Thursday’s opening reception takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. Find more information on the event Facebook page.

“Within from Without” See works by two artists well known on the metro Phoenix arts scene as Lotus Contemporary Art, which moved from Roosevelt Row to Scottsdale in 2016, presents paintings by Onna Voellmer and light-infused sculpture by Larry Ortega. Thursday’s opening reception takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. Learn more on Denise Fleisch's Facebook page.

Lynn Trimble is an award-winning freelance writer and photographer specializing in arts and culture, including visual and performing arts